If you have strong opinions about #Mesh networking, please let me know.

[edent@mastodon.social]

If you have strong opinions about #Mesh networking, please let me know.

I keep seeing things about #MeshCore and #Meshtastic and I am now thoroughly confused.

If I want to set up #LoRa messagingfor emergency / fun usage, which should I be looking at?

(Looking for people who use them - not just googled speculation, thanks!)

[yayamatt@mastodon.social]

@Edent I've been looking recently too, and found it confusing.
I wanted a device I could leave in my loft and control with a phone, but also take around to (hopefully) EMFCamp.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0F1CYWVLC?psc=1
I'm planning on getting this pair to split with my dad who lives a few miles away and see how it goes.
I found meshmap.net useful for seeing what was nearby.

[rgarner@mastodon.social]

@Edent @vaurora posted something good recently, apologies if you've already seen https://mstdn.social/@vaurora/115904345026660329

(and appears to be giving a talk, hope that one makes it online at some point https://mstdn.social/@vaurora/115915322997911336 )

[cazmockett@mastodon.social]

@Edent I suspect that @alistairmacdonald may know a thing or two

[alistairmacdonald@mastodon.social]

@cazmockett @Edent I don’t have a strong opinion. Not at the moment anyway. A few of us are playing with Meshtastic and there are now enough nodes across Tyneside to make it a usable system. Meshcore is on my list to experiment with, but we don’t have the same user base/coverage here, and until recently I did not have the hardware to run it. They are just different systems that for most users do the same thing. I presume it is coverage and UI preferences that drives most users decisions here.

[alistairmacdonald@mastodon.social]

@cazmockett @Edent For reference I was using custom Meshtastic firmware on an old [and technically unsupported] TTGO module, and I could not get MeshCore running in this old hardware. I have just upgraded to a Heltec V3.2 module that is far better. If you buy at the right time you can get two for under £30.

[alec@perkins.pub]

@Edent whichever one is prevalent around you. There could even be both. MeshCore is well suited for wide-area mesh networking. Meshtastic is more intended for personal ad hoc meshes, like when hiking, but it can be configured to work well in an infrastructure-based mesh. You can mostly reflash between the two so there’s little difficulty in playing with both. Each project has a Discord with local threads, and many areas have their own very substantial communities.

[edent@mastodon.social]

Always a delight to be sent random circuit boards in the post
Not sure I'll have enough time before #FOSDEM to set up a full #Meshtastic node, but I'll give it a go!

[rgarner@mastodon.social]

@Edent which one did you get? I might forestall all thinking and simply copy what you're doing

[zipkid@gts.solfood.be]

@Edent I hear MeshTastic has issues. MeshCore is supposed to be 'better'. There is a lot of MEshCore in .nl and .de, I brought my node to Brusseles last week and found only radio-silence. I will try not to forget to bring it to #FOSDEM on Saturday.

[dpecos@mastodon.social]

@zipkid @Edent I’ll bring my t-deck with #meshcore as well, was planning on saying hi on #public and jumping to a #fosdem channel to avoid too much chatter and bother the locals

[edent@mastodon.social]

@dpecos @zipkid woo! I'll try to find you. My Signal and other contact details are on https://edent.tel/

[dpecos@mastodon.social]

@Edent @zipkid awesome, I’ll ping you to say hi at least

[dpecos@mastodon.social]

@zipkid @Edent I was checking the meshcore map in Brussels and it’s pretty empty

I’ll try to prepare a repeater for the conference, let’s see if the device arrives on time

[edent@mastodon.social]

Well, thanks to WebUSB I was able to flash this tiny board with MeshCore. It connects fine to my phone, but I can't see any other nodes.
The hunt continues!

[nomdetom@mastodon.social]

@zipkid @Edent
I thought we'd reached a truce, and agreed not to randomly disparage other projects. What are the "issues" that Meshtastic has?
Meshtastic is uniquely suited to events, even assuming no-one has coordinated an event-specific firmware.
And, as a wise man once said "nonsense, they're both better".

[stfn@fedi.stfn.pl]

@Edent I have the same board, and I started seeing other nodes when I bought a uFL to SMA pigtail and used a much bigger antenna than the one provided with it

[nomdetom@mastodon.social]

@Edent I'm glad the box wasn't summarily destroyed in transit for being too suspicious, and I hope you enjoy playing with it as much as we enjoyed making it.
The Femtofox team was strongly influenced by the loss of mobile phone towers in the Northern California wildfires. I still have a dream of solar powered linux nodes as part of a healthy mesh.
The reality is that it's just really really cool to play with.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@stfn I understood *some* of those words

[michael@m.mtlynch.io]

@Edent I've been exploring LoRa as well. Here's my writeup about experimenting with MeshCore for a few weeks: https://mtlynch.io/first-impressions-of-meshcore/